Treating TB: Your Medicine and Safety Guide

Take every dose

• Take your TB medicines for the full 6 to 9 months, or as long as your provider says.
• Do not stop when you feel better. Stopping early lets TB come back stronger and harder to treat.
• A health worker watches you take each dose, in person or by video. Keep every visit.

Protect others while you are contagious

• Your provider tells you when you no longer spread TB, usually after 2 to 3 weeks of treatment.
• Until then, stay home. Do not take buses or trains. Do not have visitors.
• Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue. Wear a mask around others.
• Open windows to let in fresh air.
• Your family and close contacts need TB tests too.

Know your medicines

• Rifampin turns urine, sweat, and tears orange. This is normal.
• Wear glasses, because rifampin stains soft contact lenses.
• Rifampin makes birth control pills work less well. Use condoms too.
• With isoniazid, do not drink alcohol. Take vitamin B6 if prescribed.

Give sputum samples

• Rinse your mouth with plain water first.
• Cough up mucus from deep in your lungs first thing in the morning.
• These tests show that your medicine is working.